David Cameron will not attend this afternoon's House of Commons debate on the phone-hacking scandal and may not take part in any vote, Downing Street said today.

Labour accused the Prime Minister of 'failing to show leadership' after it was announced that Leader of the House Sir George Young will respond for the Government to the debate called by Ed Miliband.

It is understood that Mr Cameron assured Mr Miliband when they met last night that he would take part in the debate.

But the Prime Minister's official spokesman said that, as Mr Cameron was giving a statement to MPs on the Government's response to the phone-hacking allegations following Prime Minister's Questions today, it was not thought necessary for him to spend the afternoon in the Commons listening to a debate on the same issue.

Rupert Murdoch leaves his London home today as a frowning Prime Minister leaves Downing St this morning

It was the Prime Minister's
'intention' to vote if a division is called on the motion urging News
Corporation boss Rupert Murdoch to withdraw his bid for the remaining
shares in BSkyB, but other engagements might prevent him from doing so,
said the spokesman.

A U.S. senator has called for an investigation of News Corp following the telephone hacking scandal, signalling the crisis could spread to the U.S.

Senator John Rockefeller (pictured), chairman of the powerful committee on commerce, science and transportation, said phone-hacking at News of the World raised 'serious questions' about whether the newspaper's parent company had broken any U.S. laws.

'I am concerned that the admitted phone hacking in London by the News Corp. may have extended to 9/11 victims or other Americans,' he said. 'If they did, the consequences will be severe.'

So far, the scandal has largely been contained to the British business of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. But News Corp is based in New York, and owns a clutch of prominent media properties in the U.S., including the Wall Street Journal, New York Post, and Fox Broadcasting.

Earlier yesterday, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski said he did not expect his agency to become involved in any examination of News Corp.

Today the company's Australian branch announced they would investigate all payments they had made for stories over the last three years.

Mr Cameron, Nick Clegg and Mr Miliband were also said to be 'close to
agreement' on the nature of an inquiry into hacking allegations,
following 'positive' talks. The judge heading it could be announced as
early as today.

However, the cross-party harmony is unlikely to survive what could be a bruising Prime Minister's Questions this lunchtime.

This
morning, Sir Hugh Orde, president of the Association of Chief Police
Officers, urged News International to hand over any evidence of
corruption among police officers.

'My
invitation to News International would be that they step up and produce
any information they still have which they think is relevant,' he told
the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

'Let's
not play around with legal games here - if they have names, dates,
times, places, payments to officers, we would like to see them so that
we can lock these officers up and throw away the key, frankly, because
any corrupt officer does huge damage to the 140,000 officers that go out
every day to keep people safe.'

He added: 'My sense of it is that it is not something that is endemic or cultural. I think the vast majority of officers would be absolutely outraged that someone in a position of authority with access to privileged information thinks it's right in any way, shape or form to give that information up.'

The Sun newspaper today defended itself against allegations that it accessed former prime minister Gordon Brown's family medical records without his knowledge.

The tabloid insisted information that Mr Brown's son Fraser had cystic fibrosis was handed to it by a member of the public - a father whose child also suffered from the disease.

It also claimed Mr Brown and his wife Sarah gave senior staff at the paper consent to publish the November 2006 article.

As well as meeting his political counterparts, Mr Cameron met with Metropolitan
Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson last night, receiving 'assurances about the independence' of current investigations.

The discussion in Downing Street capped a humiliating day for
Scotland Yard which saw some of its most senior officers berated by MPs
for botching previous probes.

The Home Affairs Select Committee mocked former Met assistant
commissioner Andy Hayman for being 'like Clouseau rather than Columbo'.

Ed Miliband meeting the family of Milly Dowler yesterday. The murdered schoolgirl's parents Bob and Sally, along with her sister Gemma urged him to push for an in-depth investigation into phone-hacking even though it may cause embarrassment to senior politicians.

Incumbent Assistant Commissioner John
Yates was told his evidence was 'unconvincing' after he said he had
always been truthful and blamed the
News of the World for 'failing to co-operate' with police until the
start of this year.

Former Met deputy assistant commissioner Peter Clarke, who oversaw
the original phone hacking probe in 2006, told the MPs he could not
justify the resources needed to trawl through the 11,000 pages of
material seized during the inquiry.

Instead a team of officers went through the documents to identify victims where there might be 'security concerns'.

Mr Clarke admitted this strategy did
not work and said it was 'utterly regrettable' that crime victims whose
phones were hacked did
not receive the support they needed sooner.

He added: 'If at any time News International had offered some
meaningful co-operation instead of prevarication and what we now know to
be lies, we would not be here today.'

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers, who is leading the new phone
hacking inquiry, conceded there was an 'awful lot to do' after
revealing police had compiled a list of more than 12,000 names and
numbers.

Evidence from News International detailed 3,870 names along with
5,000 landline numbers and 4,000 mobiles, she told the committee.

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The Commons Culture Select Committee has asked Mr Murdoch, his son
James and embattled News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks to
give evidence to their separate inquiry.

However, while the company has said it will 'co-operate' with the
MPs, it has stopped short of confirming that any of the trio will
attend.

Mr Murdoch senior, who has travelled to London from the US to take
charge of the crisis, was reported to have spent yesterday with Les
Hinton - a key executive during the ill-fated News of the World's most
controversial period.

Questions: Rupert Murdoch and his British chief
executive Rebekah Brooks have been invited to appear
before the Culture, Media and Sport select committee next Tuesday

Under attack: James Murdoch arriving at work in Wapping, London, yesterday. He has also been invited to answer questions at a Parliamentary select committee

News Corporation also unveiled a five billion US dollar share buyback
in an effort to reassure markets after Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt
indicated he would be referring the crucial bid for full ownership of
BSkyB to the Competition Commission.

Meanwhile, The Sun and Sunday Times have issued rebuttals after
former prime minister Gordon Brown accused them of accessing private
information about himself and his family.

Mr Brown said he could not think of any legitimate means by which The
Sun could have got hold of details of his four-month-old son Fraser's
cystic fibrosis in 2006 - when it was edited by Mrs Brooks.

'I don't know how all this happened, but I do know one thing: that in
two of those instances there is absolute proof that News International
was involved in hiring people to get this information,' he told the BBC.

The Sun used its front page today to deny accessing Fraser's medical
records, insisting it learned about his condition from a member of the
public.

Mr Brown's office responded that the matter was 'now in the hands of police'.

The Sunday Times said it had not broken any laws or used criminals when investigating the purchase of a flat by Mr Brown.

The parents of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler, whose phone was
allegedly hacked after she went missing, and other campaigners for a
full inquiry into the scandal will meet Mr Cameron at Number 10 today.

TIMELINE FOR THE SCANDAL WHICH CLOSED THE NEWS OF THE WORLD

The scandal has come at a time when U.S.-listed parent company News Corp is seeking to take over British pay-TV firm BSkyB in its biggest ever acquisition, worth around £9billion.

2000 - Rebekah Wade is appointed editor of News of the World. Aged just 32 and the youngest national newspaper editor in the country, she begins a campaign to name and shame alleged paedophiles, leading to some alleged offenders being terrorised by angry mobs. She also campaigns for public access to the Sex Offenders Register, which eventually comes into law as 'Sarah's Law'.

2002 - Schoolgirl Milly Dowler, 13, disappears in the London suburb of Walton-on-Thames in March. Her remains are found in September. Her murder is one of the most notorious of the decade and her killer is convicted only last month.

2003 - Wade becomes editor of The Sun, sister paper to the News of the World and Britain's biggest selling daily newspaper. Andy Coulson, her deputy editor since 2000, becomes editor of the Sunday paper. Wade tells a parliamentary committee her paper paid police for information. News International later says this is not company practice.

Nov. 2005 - The Sunday tabloid publishes a story on a knee injury suffered by Prince William, Queen Elizabeth's grandson and second in line to the throne. That prompts complaints by officials of the royal court about voicemail messages being intercepted. The complaints spark a police inquiry.

Jan. 2007 - The News of the World's royal affairs editor Clive Goodman is jailed for four months. Private investigator Glenn Mulcaire is given a six-month prison term. Goodman and Mulcaire admitted conspiring to intercept communications while Mulcaire also pleaded guilty to five other charges of intercepting voicemail messages. After the two were sentenced, News of the World editor Coulson resigns, saying he took 'ultimate responsibility', though knew nothing of the offences in advance.

May 2007 - Coulson becomes the Conservative Party's director of communications under leader David Cameron.

June 2009 - Rebekah Wade becomes CEO of News International. She marries, for a second time, becoming Rebekah Brooks.

July 2009 - The Guardian newspaper says News of the World reporters, with the knowledge of senior staff, illegally accessed messages from the mobile phones of celebrities and politicians while Coulson was editor from 2003 to 2007.

Sept. 2009 - Les Hinton, chief executive of Dow Jones and former executive chairman of Murdoch's newspaper arm in Britain, tells a committee of legislators any problem with phone hacking was limited to the one, already well-publicised, case. He says they carried out a wide review and found no new evidence.

Feb. 2010 - The House of Commons Culture, Media and Sports Committee says in a report that it is 'inconceivable' that managers at the paper did not know about the practice, which the legislators say was more widespread than the paper had admitted.

Sept. 2010 - Members ask parliament's standards watchdog to begin a new investigation into the hacking allegations at the Sunday tabloid and its former editor Coulson.Pressure for a new investigation grew after the New York Times reported allegations that News of the World reporters 'routinely' sought to hack phones.

Jan. 2011 - Police open a new investigation into allegations of phone hacking at the tabloid. Police had said in July 2009 there was no need for a probe into the hacking claims.

The News of the World announces it has sacked senior editor Ian Edmondson after an internal inquiry.

Coulson resigns as Cameron's communications chief.

April - News of the World chief reporter Neville Thurlbeck and Edmondson are arrested on suspicion of conspiring to intercept mobile phone messages. They are released on bail. The News of the World admits it had role in phone hacking.

June 23 - Levi Bellfield is found guilty of murdering Milly Dowler in 2002.

July 4 - A lawyer for Dowler's family says he learned from police that her voicemail messages had been hacked, possibly by a News of the World investigator, while police were searching for her. Some may also have been deleted, to make room for more messages, misleading police and her family. Police later say that they have also been in touch with the parents affected by the 2002 murders in the town of Soham, where two 10-year-old girls were seized and killed by a school caretaker.

July 5 - News International says that new information has been given to police. The BBC says it related to e-mails appearing to show payments were made to police for information and were authorised by Coulson.

The list of those possibly targeted includes victims of the London suicide bombings of July 7, 2005, and the parents of Madeleine McCann, who disappeared in Portugal in 2007.

July 6 - Cameron says he is 'revolted' by allegations that investigators from the paper eavesdropped on the voicemail of victims of crime.

New claims reported by Britain's Daily Telegraph say that the Sunday tabloid hacked into the phones of relatives of British soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

July 7 - News Corporation announces it will close down the News of the World. The July 10 edition was the last.

July 8 - David Cameron announces two inquiries, one to be led by a judge on the hacking scandal, another to look at new regulations for the British press. Cameron says he takes full responsibility for employing Coulson as his spokesman, defending his decision to give him a 'second chance'.

Coulson is arrested on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications and suspicion of corruption. He is bailed until October after nine hours at a police station.

The News of the World's former royal editor, Goodman, is re-arrested in connection with a police operation looking at alleged payments to police by journalists at the paper.

Police search the offices of the Daily Star tabloid where Goodman freelanced. The Star is not connected to News Corp.

July 10 - Rupert Murdoch flies into London to handle the crisis.

July 11 - Murdoch withdraws News Corp's offer to spin off BSkyB's Sky News channel. This opens the way for the government to refer News Corp's bid for the 61 per cent of BSkyB it does not already own to the competition regulator, Ofcom, who will carry out a lengthy probe. Cameron says that News Corp needed to focus on 'clearing up this mess' before thinking about the next corporate move.

Allegations surface on the same day that journalists at several News Corp papers have targeted former prime minister Gordon Brown. Police confirm to Brown that his name was on a list of targets compiled by Mulcaire.

July 12 - John Yates, Assistant Commissioner at London's Metropolitan Police, who was criticised for deciding in 2009 not to reopen the earlier inquiry, is to appear before parliament's Home Affairs Committee.

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Pressure mounts on Rupert Murdoch as David Cameron joins demands for BSkyB bid to be dropped